My forays into professional artisthood have been challenging. I’m trying to find a way to make my art a business that can at least support me in some part, without feeling like my art is no longer authentic self expression.

Commissioned portraits start at $50 for a 9″x12″ watercolor which require a about 40 to 60 minutes of sitting for it. That’s enough time for a finished but loosely painted portrait (the portrait below was a 40 minute pose.) If you’re interested in something larger, 50 cents per square inch is a good estimate of a starting price.

If you don’t like the finished piece of art, I get to keep the painting and draw cephalopods all over it.

portrait with octopus

I’m hoping portraiture will provide that opportunity for me. Unless someone is commissioning me I still want to make them a bit weird. I particularly like cephalopods.

portrait in progress

I’ve started taking a portraiture class at my local community college, which has been a nice opportunity to have someone sit for a long pose. The portrait above is 2/3 done. If it doesn’t work out I’ll just keep on going back to figure drawing

Rope Paintings

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to paint some friends on a rope outing. The results are pretty gestural:

Portraits

I had been planning on taking a portraiture class this summer, but it was cancelled. It’s surprisingly difficult to find portraiture classes so I’ve been putting extra effort into drawing portraits in figure sessions. Some are more successful than others, but I feel like a learn something in each one: